


vulpis figere

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [103]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25579819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Max watches his brother work.
Relationships: Fred Elster & Max Elster
Series: As Prompted [103]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/360089
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	vulpis figere

**Author's Note:**

> For the Humans Challenge prompt “challenge”. 
> 
> And featuring the fox again. Listen, Fred didn’t tell us much about himself, so I have to mine it deep.
> 
> Maybe the title means “to fix the fox” in Latin, maybe it’s maybelline

Max leaned up against the doorway of the shed, watching his older brother work in silent awe. His awe was silent principally because he had been told that he could watch as long as he didn’t make too much noise. Max was not going to take any chances.

The fox was evidently very weak, because it had stopped the pitiful mewling sounds and now seemed scarcely aware that Fred was there at all. Max, in an effort to be Useful, had searched the grounds for some corydalis root, having read that you could use it as a sedative, but there was none to be found. Probably this was a good thing, because the book had said that it was difficult to judge how much of the plant to administer to a wild animal. For now, he had resolved to watch, and be poised to help if he was asked.

His patience was rewarded when Fred looked up and said, “Max. Pass me another swab?”

Eagerly, Max did so, and upon taking it Fred said, “Thanks,” and then, “I didn’t mean you couldn’t talk at all.”

Max smiled. He didn’t particularly have anything to say.

“There.” Fred leaned back from his work, surveying the fox’s wound from a slightly greater distance. “I’m going to leave it to settle for now. In three hours, we should see some progress.”

Fred stood up, but Max stayed where he had knelt to pass him the swab. He was looking at the fox’s leg. Although Fred’s handiwork was perfectly neat and the stitches so small they would be invisible to organic human eyes, the damage still looked bad. The limb was out of shape; the bones had been all but crushed in the trap.

“Do you think he will walk again?” Max asked.

“Yes,” said Fred. “Father would never have set the challenge if he thought it was impossible.”

Max wasn’t entirely sure about that, although if anybody asked, he wouldn’t be able to explain why. Still, it wasn’t often that Fred was wrong and he was right. Fred had been here much longer, and must know their Father better.

“Let’s go,” Fred said. “I want to see Leo.”

Max stood up, taking one last look at the fox. He wasn’t entirely thrilled about the idea of going to look at Leo again. He didn’t like to see him lying there, wired up in their Father’s laboratory, only breathing because a machine did it for him. It just made Max feel more certain that they had lost him.

Fred, on the other hand, was almost always peering around the door, and on the brief occasions when they saw their Father, he would ask unending questions about Leo’s progress. Max nursed a secret suspicion that Fred’s work with the fox was partly a bid to prove his worth as a potential assistant. Here, too, Max had doubts. Not even Mia was permitted to stay long in the lab. Their Father worked alone. More likely the fox was intended as a distraction for Fred, not a test he was supposed to pass.

But, as he so often did, Max kept quiet.


End file.
